A Few Points Before the Year Ends + A Bit of a Winge

Wow. That year flew by. In retrospect, so much has happened, but it feels crazy to think that right around the corner is 2012.

Last weekend, two great things happened to end the year off pretty well for me: Yasuda decided to have a hot air balloon for the town children to have rides on. I got to go twice! It was lovely and I saw people smile so hard, my face hurt for them. It was almost more exciting for the students' parents than it was for the kids themselves!


That evening, I made the first ever attempt to have a middle school dance for the students. I had initially invited the entire 'Chugei' area, which included Tano-cho, Nahari-cho, Umaji-mura, Kitagawa-mura, along with my own Yasuda-cho. HOWEVER, my fellow JETs didn't quite push the event too much, so only my students came. At school, I had a sign-up sheet for them and only about 12 or 13 signed up. There were about 5 maybes. When the time came for the dance, typical Japanese style, students were there pretty much at five or earlier. My 12 that had signed up showed first. Then more and more kept coming. I think we ended up with maybe 30 or more! It was crazy! I didn't have enough food, but I didn't care. I couldn't believe they actually danced, too! Not all, of course, but more than I expected. Even some guys danced! we didn't have slow songs, just dance-y ones. They didn't like to hear anything but what they already knew and each song in Japan has a corresponding dance they know with it. They looked to us foreigners for the foreign song dances, with no response. It was nice and I plan to try again at the end of the year in March. Mostly because I love my sannensei (3rd graders - or 9th grade in the U.S.).

I gave my elementary school students silly bands for presents. They liked them a lot. It's cute to see how a completely different culture takes to things that are popular elsewhere. I had every grade in every school make Christmas cards as well, which went over quite well. Something strange about Christmas here is that it considered a "couple's" holiday, so the junior high schoolers all looked at me crazy when I told them to give the card to their mother or father. Today the Kidergarten and elementary school Christmas parties are happening. It's cute, but strange to see Japan's version of Christmas at times. . .

2011 was quite the struggle for me in many ways. I had visited the hospital and obtained injuries way too many times, battled boredom and stress in the workplace, and had my emotions stretched to their limits many times. NOW, I'm dealing with an even more frustrating issue. . . I requested a job transfer in the JET Program so that I could join Steven in Fukuoka. We had so many hoops to jump through including having to tell them that we were seriously engaged and intended to marry before the following year ended. We felt like that was easy enough to say we would do, but I needed to change the words "willing to wed in Japan" to "intend to wed in Japan" or the answer would be no for sure. That wasn't good enough either, so I had to make it "will wed in Japan at ~date~" and then I received an OK. They had granted me a transfer! My supervisor explained that all that was left was to wait for CLAIR to tell us if there was a contracting organization that wanted me. SO exciting!!! . . . . . . The last few minutes of my last day before winter break I was told that they changed their minds.

Apparently, they found some snafu in the contract that said, if I were to move to another place to be with a spouse, they would need to have a full-time, contracted job which the spouse would be able to stay at until they were 60 or so, like the rest of the government workers in Japan. In other words, he is not Japanese, so I can't go. End of story. To make it better, this rule is written only in the Japanese part of the contract, not the English translation, so I can't even see it to prove it. We were willing to do whatever they wanted to make this work out. What the hell happened? Now no one even claims to know why I thought I was accepted. Fuck that. Now, looks like I'll be finding a new job in July or August, probably with Interac or some private company. It's just frustrating and I can't believe it happened or that it is legitimately a reason not to allow someone a transfer. >_<

At this point I have two states of mind about this place and this job:
1. I can't wait to get the fuck out of here and move to Fukuoka just to spite them. I'm tired of these people and this house and everything and it couldn't end soon enough.

and

2. I really need to make the most of my remaining time here. I want to see these friends I've made while here as much as possible, clean my place thoroughly, see more of this island and places nearby, and leave a lovely impression on everyone so that maybe they will talk about me as much as they do about David, my predecessor.

I'm freezing. . .

Many things to say, but only one thing on my mind at the moment, really. . . I'm so effing COLD! >_< It isn't that the temperature is ridiculous. It's actually somewhere between 40 an 45F, 4-7C at night and is warmer in the day by about 20 degrees Fahrenheit, 10 degrees Celsius. That's not the big issue. The biggest problem is that there is no real way for me to keep this place warm inside. The walls of homes are no longer made of paper in Japan, but they might as well be. Japan has this love for glass, concrete, and fake wood. (Actually, there are many places with real wood, but it is cut about 20cm thick and usually used as a table or wall piece.) I don't think they believe in insulation in this country. Basically, whatever you are feeling outside, it's about the same in your home. At school, especially the junior high school, there are nothing but glass sliding doors all over the place connecting to the outside world. At this time of year, they open up a lot of these doors and create a nice breezy ice box for the students to enjoy. They claim it "brings in fresh, healthy air". I think they need to notice the little girls and boys walking around the schools with heat pads and blue lips and make another assessment of that situation. . . My shower is in a room attached to my kitchen. The second that shower door opens up, all the steam fills the kitchen for a few minutes and then sneaks out the drafty kitchen window. When I get out, I have to go through the cold kitchen, up the cold and frighteningly steep stairs, and into the freezing cold bedroom. Upstairs, the two rooms both have those same drafty windows which mysteriously let a constant cool breeze flow through the whole top floor. YAY! I have had people come over to my place and tell me how much they like it, how cute it is, how they'd love to have a house instead of a tiny little apartment. LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING: in summer, when all you have to do is turn on a fan or the A/C box to cool down your entire place and, in winter, when all you have to do is turn on a little space heater or change that A/C box to the heat setting to warm up your ENTIRE place, please think about this boiling hot or freezing cold house that you would have loved. . . while you are lazing about in comfort.